Ganga

By: Vithal C Nadkarni In a tweet about quirks of our babudom, Omar Abdullah questions the need to sit on chairs draped with a towel in government offices. Is this because the chairs aren't clean, the J&K CM asks. Or is the towel acover-up op for stains? It's tempting to dismiss this as a mere housekeeping query. The short answer then would be, ahem, to KICK it, "Keep It Clean, Kookie!" But closer cogitation by your columnist leads to a murkier mindset: it's really about our personal obsession with cleanliness being...

VARANASI: Even as it looked set to re-promulgate the Land Acquisition Ordinance, government today insisted that it was not making it a "prestige" issue and was willing to have a discussion with opposition parties to sort out differences. "It is not a prestige issue for us...We need to change the law of 2013 for the development of the country, especially the villages," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters here while replying to questions over the controversial...

It's a pleasant afternoon when our east bound train leaves Delhi. Clusters of colonies gradually dissolve into vast expanses ? grey and dusty, and occasionally splashed with patches of green. Winter's almost over. At dusk, we glimpse large cranes bidding farewell to the setting sun. Soon, darkness descends as our train rattles into the unknown. Changing odours waft through the windows of our compartment, heralding the season round the corner. I stay awake till cooler winds welcome us to the valley of the Ganga,...

Cashflow, crossfire, black money, double trouble, return-to-sender. Hey, relax. This isn't an underworld exchange. These are the charming names of some of those wet 'n' wild white water rapids on the Ganga, barely 40km from the tranquil and holy town of Rishikesh in Uttaranchal. There are more ominous-sounding ones: Daniel's Deep and The Wall, the grade IV rapids where one false move could send you either hurtling down to a plunging water drop or churn you around in a devilish whirlpool.

NEW DELHI: The fifth meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority, the second to be held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi , was more in the nature of a stock taking exercise. Prime Minister Modi reiterated his call for an "uncompromising mission-mode approach" to stop further pollution of the Ganga. The Prime Minister, according to an official release, stressed that the while the task of cleaning the...

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today claimed that her state has topped in executing Clean Ganga mission schemes. "West Bengal tops in executing the Clean Ganga mission schemes among the five states through which the Ganges flows. The other four states are Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. This is given in a recent report of the Ministry of Water Resources," Banerjee said in a Facebook post. She said that...

MUZAFFARNAGAR: Water supply to Delhi, Noida and Agra will be affected due to the closure of the Ganga canal for maintenance work, official sources said here today. The canal has been closed from October 14 to November 3 for maintenance work, said the Sub Divisional Officer of UP Irrigation Department V S Yadav . According to Yadav, the closure would hit water supply to 19 districts of Uttar Pradesh, including Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Hathras, and Firozabad.

MUMBAI: Concerned over pollution in country's rivers, including the sacred Ganga, BJP leader L K Advani has asked the chemical industry to find innovative and cost effective ways to stop environmental degradation. "...when I think of the highly polluted condition of Ganga today, I wonder with immense sadness in my heart, why have we neglected and ill-treated our mother river like this?" Advani asked. "Companies in the chemical industry should take a pledge to adopt strong...

PATNA: On a day when Congress leader and youth icon Rahul Gandhi was campaigning in Bihar, JD(U) president Sharad Yadav launched a blistering attack against the Nehru-Gandhi family and said he (Mr Rahul Gandhi) should be immersed in the Ganga. The personal attack launched by the senior JD(U) leader against Congress' star campaigner met with strong reactions from the state Congress. "If Sharadji will not tender apology within 24 hours, we will formally lodge a...

PATNA: Even as the Congress seethed at Sharad Yadav for his call to voters to "immerse" general secretary Rahul Gandhi and his party into the Ganga, calling the remark "indecent, the JD(U) president stuck to his guns saying, "Yes, I've been telling people to dunk the hand, the bungalow and the lantern (poll symbols of the Congress, LJP and RJD ) into the Ganga for ever. " "Ganga mein bhashaan kar do inko," Yadav thundered again on Monday. "Why...

NEW DELHI: Describing the task of cleaning Ganga as "challenging", Prime Minister Narendra Modi today pitched for an "uncompromising mission-mode approach" to stop further pollution of the river which would require the participation of people as well. Chairing the fifth meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority in New Delhi here, he said the task of cleaning the Ganga had the potential to generate immense economical activity and bring about a...

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose government has given top priority to cleansing the Ganga, would chair the fifth meeting of National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) tomorrow. The Prime Minister is the the ex-officio Chairman of the Authority while Chief Ministers of Bihar , West Bengal , Uttarakhand , Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand are its members. The meeting comes at a time when BJP-led NDA government at Centre...

NEW DELHI: The government has asked 118 municipalities and urban local bodies and 678 industrial units in the five Ganga river basin states—Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar , Jharkhand and West Bengal--to submit their action plans for setting up sewage and effluent treatments plants within 15 days. The notice issued just days ahead of Thursday's meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority reads the riot act to the states. Thursday's meeting of the...

NEW DELHI: Climate change will have a "considerable" impact on the dynamics of the river Ganga, affecting a major portion of north India which is directly dependent on it for its agriculture and industrial needs, a recent study said. In a study conducted by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, on how the stream-flow in the basin would change under the changing "land use pattern" and "climate", it was found that...

NEW DELHI: India's first woman to climb Mt Everest who has just wrapped up an all women desert safari, is gearing up for her next big mission, cleaning up the Ganga. "We did an expedition 'Great Rafting Voyage' on the Ganga in 1994 which covered the river from Haridwar to Kolkata in 39 days. This time we want to concentrate on cleaning the river," says Pal. Pal was here to celebrate success of her recent endeavour a 2,300-km-long 'Great Desert Safari'. The 60-year-old heads...

NEW DELHI: Germany is keen to offer its expertise for the Ganga clean-up mission by bringing in the experience of cleaning Rhine river there. "Rejuvenation and cleaning of the river Ganga is one of the top priorities of Indian government. We are now just in the phase where we are going to see how we are going to assist the Indian government in this important endeavour," Heiko Warnken , head of Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany, said on the sideline of...

PATNA: Shedding his hostility towards PM Narendra Modi , Bihar CM Nitish Kumar could meet him on March 26. After recently returning as the CM for the 4th time, Kumar had declared that he would even call on the PM, indicating he was willing to mend fences with him. For Kumar, the opportunity to meet the PM has arrived as the Centre invited him to the Ganga Action Plan meeting in New Delhi on March 26. Along with Kumar, chief ministers from...

NEW DELHI: National Green Tribunal on Friday gave the Central Pollution Control Board and Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board two weeks to complete inspection of 700 tanneries located on the banks of the Ganga in Kanpur area and submit its report. In January, a bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar had warned it would order closure of these tanneries if they did not comply with prescribed standards. The green court had said...